Episode 4: What a Tangled Web They Weave

By ClueLiss, October 20, 2002

Alias Season 2 Episode 4

When last we left Syd she was trapped underwater by ice. Syd fights to get through the ice, gives up, then sees someone in scuba gear sinking. He has an air tank and she uses it to breathe. She takes scuba man’s weapon and uses it to get through the ice. Syd’s head makes it above the water. She tries to get out. But sinks back down. Dixon grabs her from the water.

Back in the States, Syd debriefs with Sloan. She tells him that the music box was corroded. Sloan questions why Rambaldi would hide the information – in this case in Siberian catacombs. Why would he go to that trouble, only to have them corrode? Syd tells Vaughn that Sloan made sure that she knew how glad he was that she made it back. Vaughn tells Syd that the mission was a complete success. Vaughn and Syd discussion forgiving Syd’s mother and all the horrible things she had done. Syd asks Jack if she read her brief. He has. Jack states that her motivations are her own. Syd says that all of their discussions have been specific and mission related. Jack points out the conversation about the Thanksgiving play, which tells Syd that he’s been watching her.

Back from the first break, Jack and Sloan chat about Sloan’s call from the bed and breakfast in Sonoma. Sloan says the alliance can’t know he’s taking measures. Jack says he’ll send Dixon. Sloan tells Jack that they retrieved the music box but it was corroded. However they also got something else.

We morph to Syd eating breakfast with Will and Francie. Will asks Syd if his cooperation with the CIA last week was helpful at all. Syd tells him that the information was huge. The CIA scored a huge victory. Syd’s pager goes off. It’s Jack. Sloan sent a team after Sark to retrieve the music box. They found a man at the location even though Syd got away. The man, Richter, had the bible of Irina’s former organization. They screened him for numerous illnesses. He was ill, but had nothing they could detect. He was bleeding at the fingernails and clearly ill. Jack gives the man morphine – but only enough for 5 minutes. Give Jack the manual and he’ll give Richter more. The map is in a first edition of War and Peace in Moscow. Syd needs to switch the map with a fake. Syd wants to know why Jack is giving her the CIA counter mission before the briefing by SD6. Syd knows its because Jack wants to limit her contact with Irina.

We go to a narcotics anonymous meeting with Will who says he knows someone more than he did before. A girl at the meeting talks with him afterward. She doesn’t think that he was ever a drug addict. She believed what he wrote about SD6. That he got too close and they shot him up and ruined his rep. The girl has a conspiracy website. She tells Will she’s going to prove that his theory was true.

Back at the CIA – Syd goes to chat with Irina again. Syd tells her that Richter is in custody. That they only leverage Irina had was the manual. And that SD6 is after it. Syd tells her that SD6 is sending her to Moscow to get the map. Syd asks for any information about the map that will help the CIA if she truly wants to help. Irina says she wants a pair of earrings with sentimental value back. Syd says she’ll see what she can do.

Jack meets with the Shrink. Jack isn’t happy that Syd went to see her mother. Irina gives Syd a route through the library. We flash back to Jack who says the Irina has a way of disarming you. The shrink asks if there is any way she can honestly want forgiveness. Jack snaps no. He theorizes that Irina wants to pull Syd to her side. Back to Syd and Irina. Irina tells Syd to be careful. Jack tells the shrink he’s afraid of losing his daughter.

Back from the second break, Vaughn tells Syd that he knows this must be insane for her father, and for her because he knows how he feels with Irina there and she killed his father. Syd is told that her plane is standing by. Syd enters a building in Russian Military garb. She has to go through a metal detector, and sets it off. The medals on her chest set the metal detector off. Turns out that one of the metals is an electronic skeleton key. The next gets her into the library. The third gets her into the special part of the library where the book is stored. The book is dropped. But Sark shows up, and points a gun at her head. An alarm goes off. Sark gets the map. Syd hides. Sark drops the map. Syd picks it up and runs. Russian military men are on her tail. Syd calls for help. Tells Vaughn to get Irina on the phone. Syd needs a way out. Irina asks questions about Syd’s exact location. Irina reveals the location of the controls for a private security door in the office Syd is in. Syd gets away.

Back from third break, Syd tells Vaughn that Sark asked her to work for him – like it was a done deal. Vaughn says that her mother might be able to help. Syd goes to see Irina, and takes the earrings she requested. They were from Irina’s mother. Syd says they need Irina to decode the map. Jack approaches Dixon about going to Sonoma to trace the phone calls and who is making them. Irina’s gives Syd the map’s code. Syd says Irina says the building is clean. Vaughn says something about Irina wanting to prove herself. Jack snaps at Vaughn. Jack doesn’t believe it. Syd and Vaughn are sent to Madagascar to retrieve the bible. Jack is supposed to deal with Syd’s cover at SD6. Jack pays off someone to make sure that everyone in a building dies.

Will leaves a meeting. The conspiracy theory girl chats up Will again. He insists to her that he made it all up. She won’t back down. Will tells her about a friend’s fiancé dying and wanting to find out what happened. He tells her he made it up because he wanted to help. We next see the girl talking to Sloan. She tells him Will Tippin shouldn’t be a threat. She gave him a number of chances to talk and he didn’t. Dixon brings Sloan a copy of the desk register from the bed and breakfast in Sonoma. The signature is Emily’s.

Back from break 4, Syd and Vaughn are in Madagascar. It is nighttime. They are at a house. The CIA observes from radar. Jack tells them to switch to infrared. Just as Syd starts to go in, Jack stops her. He says the building is wired. Syd is told to check under the house. Syd complies and finds an intricate wiring setup. Syd says, “She lied to me” Vaughn and Syd pull back. Syd mutters about Irina lying to her. Vaughn is slammed in the face by Sark. Sark says they saved him the trouble. The Russian’s enter the building as Sark says if he didn’t know better, he’d think they had another source of information. The house explodes. Sark disappears. Syd tells them that she is okay. They order that Irina be removed from the facility. Jack is told that he was right. Irina is put in shackles and moved.

Syd tells Jack she thought there was a chance that she could believe there was no hidden agenda. That everything he said was right. Syd cries and says she was so stupid. Jack hugs her and Syd says she’s sorry, she’s sorry that she doubted him.

Next time: As a father hides his past. An unspeakable thing happens. Syd needs to know what happened to her.